Serious Sam: The First Encounter

For the updated HD version, see Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter

Developers
	Croteam
Publishers
North America	Gathering of Developers
Europe	Take-Two Interactive
Russia, CIS	1C Company
	Devolver Digital
Engines
	Serious Engine 1
Release dates
Windows	March 23, 2001
Reception
Metacritic	87
IGDB	83
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person, Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, FPS, Shooter, TPS
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Egypt, Sci-fi
Series	Serious Sam

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person action, FPS, shooter and TPS game in the Serious Sam series.

General information

Official game series site

Seriously! Forums

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		US: Basic disc check EU: CopyLok DRM
GOG.com		Includes soundtrack.
Steam		Renamed to Serious Sam Classic: The First Encounter.

Essential improvements

Serious Sam XPLUS is a mod that enhances the textures, using the HD version textures.

Updates for non-Steam versions of the game can be downloaded from Serious Zone. (The link is dead, however the Steamify update for non-Steam versions can also be downloaded from Mod DB).

The game seems to choose the lowest screen refresh rate available to the monitor. In order to change the screen refresh rate, press ~ (or the key above Tab) to open the console, enter the line: gap_iRefreshRate=60 (or whatever refresh rate you want) then restart the game.

If the game doesn't recognize your graphics card try changing Direct3D mode to OpenGL and vice versa. If that doesn't work, let the game run on windowed mode by pressing Alt+↵ Enter and try again.

Source ports

Serious Engine: Ray Traced

Real-time path tracing support for Serious Engine 1.10.

Serious Sam Classic: Vulkan

Vulkan Serious Engine port based on open source version.

Game data

In-game player settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Scripts\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/41050/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\SaveGame\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/41050/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

In-game general rendering settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor			See Widescreen resolution.
Ultra-widescreen			See Widescreen resolution.
4K Ultra HD			See Widescreen resolution.
Field of view (FOV)		Default is 90° horizontal. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		None, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Can be forced through the GPU control panel.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 1.0, DLSS 2.3 See Serious Engine: Ray Traced.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Labeled as Wait vertical retrace. This in-game setting tends to reset itself to Custom. To correctly enable vsync, open PersistentSymbols.ini and change the line gap_iSwapInterval=(INDEX)0; to gap_iSwapInterval=(INDEX)1;.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame counter can be enabled by using /hud_iStats=1 in the in-game console (~).
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)		See Serious Engine: Ray Traced.

Widescreen resolution

Steam version supports 16:9 and 16:10 resolution from in-game video options. Non-standard resolutions still need to be edited manually and can't be selected in-game, but FOV does not need to be adjusted for Hor+ ultrawide gameplay. You can download the Steam executable here (click) and replace the original executable located in [game directory]/Bin instead of the method below to get access to widescreen resolutions in-game. Alternatively, download Steamify, extract the archive and copy the SeriousSam.exe from the Bin directory and overwrite the executable in the game's Bin directory.

This is what happens if you don't disable widescreen when setting a custom resolution in Serious Sam: The First Encounter.

Modify PersistentSymbols.ini

Launch the game at least once. Go to <path-to-game>\Scripts\. Open PersistentSymbols.ini. Locate lines: persistent extern INDEX sam_iScreenSizeI=(INDEX)XXX; persistent extern INDEX sam_iScreenSizeJ=(INDEX)YYY; Change XXX and YYY to desired resolution. Save the changes and launch the game. Do not enable Wide screen option from rendering menu. For perfect Hor+ behavior set field of view according to the given aspect ratio or resolution: 16:9 - 106.26 16:10 - 100.39 2560x1080 - 121.28 1366x768 - 106.29 1360x768 - 106.04

Field of view (FOV)

Steam version has fixed widescreen FOV (and weapon FOV).

Use /plr_fFOV=XX in the in-game console (~), where XX is the desired horizontal FOV

Modify PersistentSymbols.ini
Launch the game at least once. Go to <path-to-game>\Scripts\. Open PersistentSymbols.ini. Locate the persistent extern user FLOAT plr_fFOV=(FLOAT)XX; line. Change XX to desired horizontal FOV. Save the changes and launch the game.

Input

In-game general control settings.

In-game key map settings.

In-game axis settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		For correct mouse input, turn Sharp Turning ON, smoothing OFF, "mouse acceleration" ON (this is not variable acceleration as in other games)
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Only for iFeel.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 2.0 reverb; no DirectSound3D support.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Croatian				Retail release, download.
Italian				Retail release, download.
Polish				Retail release, download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation; download.
Russian				Retail release, download.
Spanish				A patch that adds the Spanish language can be found here.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		4	Co-op, Versus Split-screen.
LAN play		16	Co-op, Versus Co-op supports 4 players.
Online play		16	Co-op, Versus Co-op supports 4 players. To play online with non-Steam versions apply the Master Server Patch.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP	25600 - 25603
UDP	25600 - 25603

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D		Anaglyph.
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Text scaling

Use dgVoodoo 2 and force borderless

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	8	Added with patch 1.05 (December 4, 2001)
OpenGL	1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4
Vulkan	1.2, 1.3	Requires Serious Sam Classic: Vulkan source port.

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows				64-bit support requires Serious Sam Classic: Vulkan source port.
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Serious Engine: Ray Traced mod uses Vulkan 1.2; requires VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline extension.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	DirectSound
Multiplayer	GameSpy

Console commands

List of useful console commands

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95 OSR2	98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz AMD K6-3 400 MHz	Intel Pentium III 650 MHz AMD Athlon 650 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	150 MB	450 MB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8 compatible	Nvidia GeForce 256 or TNT2 Ultra PowerVR Kyro S3 Savage2000 3Dfx Voodoo3 ATI Rage128 Pro 32 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)		Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live